


Stairs

by noblydonedonnanoble



Category: Doctor Who RPF
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-19
Updated: 2012-07-19
Packaged: 2017-11-10 06:57:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/463478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noblydonedonnanoble/pseuds/noblydonedonnanoble
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For the third one-word fuckyeahtatertots prompt on tumblr.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stairs

                They don’t know it, but the first time they encounter one another it’s on the stairs.

                Both of them just so happen to be staying in the same hotel on an occasion when the fire alarm goes off.

                Catherine is fairly calm about the whole thing, considering. And she has to be, because when she’s running down the stairs, she encounters another man running _up_.

                “Excuse me,” she shouts. “We need to get outside. The alarm is going, in case you didn’t hear.”

                As if anybody could miss the blaring sound filling the hall. Particularly because one of the alarms is right above their heads.

                “I noticed, but I realized I locked my key in my room.”

                There is so much wrong with the moment that she doesn’t know what to point out first. Since she’s already commented on the obvious fire alarm difficulty, she says, “Then don’t you need to go down anyway to have someone let you back in? You won’t be able to get your key without your key.”

                “Oh. Yes, of course.”

                She wants to laugh at him—well, not at him, but with him, even if he’s not laughing—but getting outside is a more pressing matter because for all they know flames could be encroaching on the stairwell as they stand there together. But he keeps standing there, breathless, so she grabs his hand and tugs him down. He stumbles over his feet for a moment before he can run with her properly.

                It occurs to him that the woman pulling on his hand is rather attractive.

                It occurs to her that a man who tries to go back to his room during a fire to retrieve his single room key would be either a complete moron or someone very intriguing.

                And she’d almost be curious to discover which he just so happens to be.

                The stairs lead directly outside, where the employees and other guests are all gathered. For a moment, they stand together directly beside the doorway, catching their breath. Catherine drops his hand awkwardly, and he notices.

                He looks at her, but she’s doing her best to look anywhere but at him. She keeps scanning the crowd, and he wonders who she’s looking for, who she’s here with.

                “I’m… I’m David.” He says after a moment. “What’s your name?”

                “Catherine!” The voice comes from behind them, and both of them turn. A man is striding toward them, a huge grin on his face. “You okay?” His eyes land on David for a split second before disregarding him. David isn’t even worth regarding as some sort of threat.

                “Hi Twig, yes. I’m lovely.”

                David walks away, uncomfortable. His eyes drift back to Catherine once or twice before the guests are all allowed back inside.

                He catches her looking over at him, at one point. When she looks away, she has the smallest smile playing on her lips.

                She’s probably laughing at him for locking himself out of his room and thinking he can just go back into get his key.

                _During a fire._

God, he’s an idiot.

***

                When they meet, officially, either they don’t recognize each other or they conveniently both decided to “forget”.

***

                Of course the Doctor and Donna reunite on the stairs.

                That’s not really the part that matters, though. The Doctor and Donna are important, most certainly, but in the moment when they hug, that’s all Catherine and David. A lot happens with that hug.

                Very little in their relationship matters quite as much as that hug.

                Maybe it’s the way Catherine gladly pulls David a little too close or maybe it’s the way that during one or two takes when his hand was out of the shot, it wanders in directions it shouldn’t.

                Maybe no particular moment can be determined. After all, a hug involves so many separate movements—arms and hands and fingers and even just fingertips, all acting of their own accord, except then there are heads there are legs, because when it’s a real hug it’s not just the torso that’s involved—that it would be nearly impossible to pinpoint what did it.

                But regardless of the touch, with no precise source identified, _that hug matters_. It matters because after that hug, Catherine begins to think of David. She thinks of him when she’s going to sleep some nights, or when she’s going through make-up in the mornings.

                And it’s a miracle when David thinks of anything _besides_ her. Ever.

                That hug ignites something in their minds, and it starts to eat away at them both.

***

                Catherine starts to wonder what it would be like to kiss him.

                Just once.

***

                When Donna has to kiss the Doctor to give him a big shock, Catherine decides that her test sample isn’t accurate enough. After all, the purpose of the kiss is not for the Doctor and Donna to _enjoy_ themselves. How can Catherine sufficiently quantify David’s kissing abilities when he wasn’t supposed to actually get into kissing her on the show?

                David and Catherine are left alone for a few moments on set, right by the stairs. And Catherine pulls him close.

                The kiss is over within seconds. Because they’re nowhere near alone, and Catherine doesn’t want to risk being noticed by anybody on set and the fact that she’s kissing him at all is tempting fate.

                But the second kiss is sufficient information.

                She now knows that she wants to kiss him again and again.

***

                “Drinks?”

                “You don’t drink.”

                “That doesn’t mean you can’t.”

***

                She thinks she understands why people just don’t _do_ sex on stairs.

                Too many bumps. But even more space. It provides her with so little support that she has to actually lean on her elbows, and she doesn’t like that.

                But the bedroom just seemed _so far_.

                And Catherine had always thought of herself as too classy to shag a man against a wall.

                Though apparently she’s not too classy to shag him on the floor. Or rather, on the stairs.

                Of course, Catherine’s also got a child, a partner. She’s got a family, a very happy family. And she’s not too classy to disregard that, apparently. So if she’s going to have sex with David anyway, she’ll do it wherever they damn well please.

                She’s pretty certain, though, that she’s going to insist on actual furniture if this becomes a regular occurrence.

***

                There was a time when Catherine told herself that she had self-respect.

                That time has passed.

***

                David’s expression is cold. He is above her in every way, symbolic and literal. It seems he’s gained more control over his emotions than she has. He’s the one calling the shots. He is actually standing over her, because she was running up the stairs to reach him when he broke the news.

                And she’s sobbing, tears streaming down her face but he’s stony faced.

                He doesn’t tell her that he has to hold the severe expression for fear of bursting into tears himself.

                Because pregnancy wasn’t his intention. This fling of his wasn’t supposed to go anywhere.

                Instead of telling Catherine that, he stands and listens as she calls him every bad name that comes to her mind. When she drops onto the stairs and sits, weeping, it’s all he can do to turn away and leave her be.

                All he wants to do is run down and hold her. All he wants to do is tell her that she’ll always be his first choice.

                David leaves her on the stairs. Because if he helps her up, he’ll bring her to his bedroom and he will never let her go.


End file.
